Monday, March 22, 2010

Monarch Update

Once again, Insects in the City is ahead of the curve. Our early news last month about monarch butterflies is being confirmed in the newspapers this week. Gardeners in urban areas are being encouraged to plant milkweed to provide some extra food sources to help migrating butterflies this summer and fall.

Monarch butterflies, hit hard by strong storms at their winter home in Mexico, have dwindled to their lowest population levels in decades as they begin to return to Texas on their springtime flight back to the
United States and Canada.

The monarch loss is estimated at 50 to 60 percent and means that the breeding population flying northward is expected to be the smallest since the Mexican overwintering colonies were discovered in 1975, said
Chip Taylor, a professor of entomology and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas.

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About Me

I have served as entomology specialist for Texas AgriLife Extension since 1989. I get to work with, and for, a bunch of great people including pest management professionals, school facilities managers, extension volunteers, researchers and other extension professionals. My areas of specialty center on research on insects affecting man including spiders, scorpions, fire ants, termites and others. My program also focuses on training school maintenance professionals in principles of integrated pest management (IPM). Our goal is to make schools healthier, cleaner places to study and live.